Locket of Love

The heart shaped locket in my hand glinted as the hazy rays of our dying sun shone upon it. After carefully excavating it from a pile of rubble, and brushing off the layer of caked-on dirt that encompassed it, I was able to admire its beauty. It felt solid and warm in my hand, with a weight to it, but not of physical size. The weight came from the memories it held. I closed my eyes and focused my abilities on the locket. A flood opened in my mind of emotions, feelings, and images of the previous washed through me, and into my very soul.

I saw her, as cleary as if she was standing right before me, a beautiful woman of mid thirties. She had a smiling face with long blonde curly hair. She was happily swinging a little boy in her arms who was laughing, obviously enjoying every second of it. I could feel that they were as happy as they appeared to be. They had lived a life full of joy, family, and prosperity. They had never known hardship or despair.

I switched my mind from the locket, my heart racing. This was probably the single most valuable archaeological find to date.

It was my purpose to find relics of the old world, before humankind had polluted and scorched the earth with toxic weaponry and nuclear bombs during World War IV almost 100 years ago. I was tasked to find objects that were intact enough for me to use my abilities of Psychometry to find the remains of human consciousness, to find what it felt like to be human back before the world was very nearly destroyed. There were so few people left now, that any scrap of memory of our civilization was worth more than anything else imaginable. All we had left were hollow holes were emotions were supposed to be. I was one of only three people known to posses the ability to feel and understand emotions by touching unbroken objects.

I gently squeezed the locket in my hand, and felt a renewed hope for the first time in my life. I carefully tucked the locket into my pack for safekeeping. The fact that I needed to get this back and share it with the others was all I could think of. The desperation I felt was unimaginable. So few of us were left, and most were no more than instinctual creatures at this point. Empty, dangerous and unpredictable humankind had become.

I quickly glanced around, there was rubble as far as the eye could see. This place used to be a a bustling metropolis. I knew because I had touched enough bits and pieces here and there to get a full picture of it when it was standing many hundreds of years ago. I ran to my hover bike parked nearby and jumped on. It roared to life and I took off as fast as it could go. The desolate landscape grew darker and darker by the second as the sun sank down in the evening sky. As I sped by I saw only a handful of dots of light from campfires that had sprung up. I sighed, “hang on out there” I said quietly. The large fenced in and enclosed community I called home came into view after what seemed like an eternity. The locket in my pack seemed to grow heavier, the weight of its importance manifesting itself. The tall metal gates swung open as I approached, I refused to let off the throttle for a second, and I didn’t slow until I reached the bottom of the steps to the great hall were my colleagues resided. I jumped off the bike and raced up the steps as fast as my legs could carry me. I reached the top and shoved open the door. Inside was a mix between a cathedral and laboratory. Stained glass windows lined the stone walls. The incredibly high ceiling had heavy wooden beams laced together. It was a sturdy fortress, built up to withstand much more damage than the current state of humanity would ever be able to inflict upon it. There were tables upon tables of scientific supplies and books. There was limited electricity in the lab, that was only used for the most promising of tests and experiments.

The two of them were deep in conversation, so much so they didn’t even notice me until I was right there beside them.

“Oh hi Sitri!” Said Jace smiling at me. Lilith ran over and gave me a big heartfelt hug “I’m so glad you’re back, we were starting to worry about you.” I pulled away from the embrace, and I quickly reached into my pack and pulled out the heart shaped locket. The look on my face must have said it all because both Jace and Lilith looked real serious all of a sudden. “Did you find something we can use?” Asked Lilith excitedly, her big green eyes sparkling with excitement. Jace stepped closer and reached out his hand, “May I?” He asked gesturing to the locket. I nodded and gently let it fall into his open hand. He closed his eyes and an immediate smile spread across his face. A single tear formed in the corner of his left eye and slowly traveled down his cheek where it disappeared between his lips. He opened his eyes and turned to Lilith. Her eyes were wide as he dropped the locket into her palms and folded her hands around the locket and held them together tightly. Tears of joy began streaming down her face as she whispered, “Oh Sitri, you found it! We can save everyone now!” She opened her eyes.

“We need to get to work right away.” Jace said sternly.

Since most of humanity was reduced to the most primal of instincts, and survival mode was all anyone was born into in this world knew, it was up to the three of them to essentially “teach through touch” how to be a human being again. Outside these walls was a dangerous world where humans were driven to survive at all costs. There was nothing of joy or love. No smiling, only baring of teeth and snarling. The only way to evolve them, was for the three of them to get a reading on an object that contained an extremely powerful positive emotion, and then by physically touching the person they were able to transfer that feeling/emotion/picture to them. Once done the person would now posses the skills needed to be a peaceful part of the community. The world was almost destroyed, but the three of them had slowly and painstakingly brought back hundreds of people over the years. The old way involved lots of nets, blood, sweat and tears as humans had to be hunted in a sense in order to be humanized again. Jace had designed a machine that could produce a frequency, that if everything worked according to plan, they could broadcast the signal over long distances via satellite. The three of them would all touch the object simultaneously and project the emotion directly into the minds of anyone within range. This would be the first time trying it out for real.

“Alright, we have no time to loose.” I said while making my way to Jace and the transmitting machine. He already had it started up and ready to go within minutes. We each picked up our helmets, and placed them securely on our heads and faced each other in a small circle. “Here we go.” Jace said. I held out my hand palm up, the locket shining proudly with its importance. Lilith took a deep breath and placed her hand on top of mine, the cool metal of the locket between us. Jace placed his hand on top of hers, making sure his fingers were touching a piece of the locket as well. “On the count of three.” Said Lilith, her hand trembling ever so slightly. On three we each opened our minds to the power of love contained in the ancient locket. We opened our minds to the fullest extent and with as much force as we could muster, we pushed that energy outwards for as long as we could. Seemly lost in the beauty of love, happiness and joy, hours went by without much notice until we heard excited shouts on the other side of the laboratory door. We opened our eyes, and steadied one another. I walked to the door and opened it. Standing on the other side of the door was a great gathering of the towns people. They were all laughing, smiling and cheering. Many had tears of joy streaming down there faces. Everyone hear had been caught and liberated by the three of them, and new of love, but this was far stronger than any of the previous love emotions they were able to find and transfer. “It worked!” IT WORKED! Jace screamed joyously, pumping his fists in the air. They hugged each other once again, and knew they had a lot more work to do to get the frequency to all the ends of the Earth, to every last person left on this planet now full of hope.

I smiled at this thought and said to myself, “ And so it shall be done.”